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Court orders Divisional Secretary to Pay Rs. 50,000 for malicious refusal of liquor licence
Colombo, July 22 (Daily Mirror) - The Court of Appeal ordered the Bandaragama Divisional Secretary to pay exemplary costs of Rs. 50,000 and the same be paid to a company engaged in the business of selling liquor, for her malicious and arbitrary decision of refusing to issue a liquor licence in 2024.
In his judgment, Court of Appeal Justice Gihan Kulatunga issued a writ of mandamus directing Bandaragama Divisional Secretary Disna Jayasinghe to accept the licence fee and issue the F.L.4 licence to the petitioner, Elisha Industries (Pvt) Ltd.
The Court concluded that the Divisional Secretary acted with malice and that her conduct was mala fide, particularly in her refusal to issue the licence on July 24, 2024. The Court further observed that several letters issued by the Divisional Secretary were contradictory, could not logically co-exist and were, to a significant extent, false.
“These facts, which are false and incorrect on the face of it, are deposed in the affidavit tendered to this Court by the 1st respondent. This amounts to civil contempt,” Justice Kulatunga remarked.
The Court also noted that the petitioner had fulfilled all requirements and conditions necessary to obtain an F.L.4 licence and that both the Commissioner General of Excise and the Minister had granted the requisite approvals and directions.
“The relevant fees have been paid and accepted. The issue of public protests and the potential threat to the maintenance of law and order has been duly considered by the Commissioner General of Excise, who has decided to issue the licence. Under these circumstances, the Divisional Secretary is not lawfully entitled to withhold or refuse the issuance of the licence to the petitioner,” Justice Kulatunga further stated.
Eraj De Silva, PC with Damindu Wijerathne and Naveed Ahmed, instructed by Dimuthu Kuruppuarachchi appeared for the Petitioner. Zuhri Zain, DSG appeared for the respondents.
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